The Ring Nebula comes into focus, and it's astounding

The famous Ring Nebula is seen in brilliant new clarity, thanks to a new James Webb Space Telescope image released by researchers in the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project. The image was processed by Roger Wesson, according to Western University in Ontario. NASA/ESA/CSA hide caption

toggle caption NASA/ESA/CSA

The famous Ring Nebula is seen in brilliant new clarity, thanks to a new James Webb Space Telescope image released by researchers in the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project. The image was processed by Roger Wesson, according to Western University in Ontario.

NASA/ESA/CSA

Gone are the days when the Ring Nebula looked sort of like a bagel, or a jelly doughnut, a massive astronomical blob holding the secrets of a dying star.

The new images of the famous Ring Nebula from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are mesmerizing, with glowing rings of gas and wispy trails emanating from the core. We can see it in more clarity than ever, including thousands of clumps that make up its main ring.

"We always knew planetary nebulae were pretty. What we see now is spectacular," Albert Zijlstra, an astrophysics professor at the University of Manchester, said in .

is actually the remains of a sun-like star. And the closer astronomers look, the more complex planetary nebulae prove to be, with numerous clumps of gas and filaments radiating outward.

"Planetary nebulae were once thought of as very simple objects, roughly spherical and with a single star at their centre," said Roger Wesson, a research associate at who led the image analysis. "Hubble showed that they were much more complicated than that, and with these latest images JWST is revealing yet more intricate detail in these objects."

that caused a stir 10 years ago, when it showed more complexity than had been seen before:

The Ring Nebula is seen in a 2013 image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. A new image has shown even more complexity within the famous nebula. NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O'Dell, G.J. Ferland, W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert hide caption

toggle caption NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O'Dell, G.J. Ferland, W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert

The Ring Nebula is seen in a 2013 image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. A new image has shown even more complexity within the famous nebula.

NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O'Dell, G.J. Ferland, W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert

You can see the Ring Nebula for yourself

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57, is more than 2,000 light years away, in the . Discovered in 1779 , it doesn't take a fancy instrument for an amateur astronomer to spot from their back yard.

"I first saw the Ring Nebula as a kid through just a small telescope," said astrophysicist Jan Cami of Western University in Ontario and the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project about the new image.

"I would never have thought that one day, I would be part of the team that would use the most powerful space telescope ever built, to look at this object," Cami said.

If you want to try to spot the Ring Nebula on your own, you're in luck: Summer is the best time to view it, and August is perfect, according to . One way to is by looking for its bright star, Vega.

The nebula is expanding as its star dies

"We are witnessing the final chapters of a star's life, a preview of the sun's distant future so to speak," Barlow said, adding, "JWST's observations have opened a new window into understanding these awe-inspiring cosmic events."

The spectacle began around 4,000 years ago, when the Nebula Ring's central star, which was more massive than our sun, expelled gases from its outer layers into space. For billions of years, the star had been converting hydrogen to helium — but it started to run low on fuel.

"It then ballooned in size, becoming a red giant," according to . "During this phase, the star shed its outer gaseous layers into space and began to collapse as fusion reactions began to die out. A gusher of ultraviolet light from the dying star energized the gas, making it glow. The outer rings were formed when faster-moving gas slammed into slower-moving material."

The nebula is still expanding — estimated at more than 43,000 miles an hour, NASA says. It's expected to keep that up for the next 10,000 years or so.